The Get Up Kids at the Glass House Last Night

The percolating synthesizers of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" served as a fitting musical introduction as TheGet Up Kids took the stage. With their new release, There Are Rules, the Get Up Kids constructed an excellent album with strong songwriting, buzzy bass, scratchy guitars and plinking synthesizers that easily shed any notion of them still being labeled an "emo" band. They came prepared to show off the spanking-new material to a rabid crowd.

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​Echo-y feedback kicked off the new song "Tithe," and Rob Pope's fuzz-drenched bass soon shook the Glass House, as Matt Pryor slashed away at his Fender Jazzmaster guitar and belted out the lyrics. Throughout the evening, the Get Up Kids smartly alternated new and old songs to keep the fans involved.

"Action & Action" immediately warmed up the singing voices of the fans. Pryor couldn't help but jokingly call out a singing fan who stood out due to the illumination from a phone. The propulsive beat of "Regent's Court" blended with tight guitars and glittery synthesizers.

Andrew Youssef/OC Weekly

​Jim Suptic would take a turn on vocal duties for "Automatic," a slinky track with stuttering bass and dreamy keyboards. Pryor reflected that the band has been playing shows at the Glass House for almost 11 years, then introduced the old favorite "Shorty." Switching to an acoustic guitar, Pryor strummed the chords for "Overdue" from their underrated album On a Wire.

Another new song, "Pararelevant," had a strong sense of immediacy blended with a small dose of paranoia. Suptic dedicated "Campfire Kansas" to the 1998 Kansas Jayhawks, but was later corrected by Pryor that it was the 1988 Jayhawk team that won the championship. The Get Up Kids wound down their set with "Close to Home" and "Walking On a Wire".

Acknowledging some of their influences, their cover of the Replacements' "Beer for Breakfast" was on-target. Saving some of their best-known tunes for last, "I'll Catch You" and "Ten Minutes" easily satiated the adoring fans, nicely winding down a solid 23-song set.

Andrew Youssef/OC Weekly

​River City Extension is an eight-member New Jersey collective that echoed moments of Arcade Fire and had a guitar player who used a shot glass as a guitar slide. Steel Train tapped into their New Jersey roots by echoing Bruce Springsteen and using anthemic harmonies.

Personal Bias: I saw the Get Up Kids at the Glass House 11 years ago.

Crowd: Typical Glass House crowd, with a majority of the people over the age of 21, according to the informal poll held by Jim Suptic during the show.

Overheard In the Crowd: River CIty Extension told the crowd, "You think 65 degrees is cold?! I've got four feet of snow at home."

Random Notebook Dump: Keyboardist James Dewees was missing from the show because he is on tour with My Chemical Romance.